


Aquaphobia

by NaClFairy



Series: The Hyacinth Blooms [1]
Category: Code Vein (Video Game)
Genre: Amnesia, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Phobias, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:34:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28048557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NaClFairy/pseuds/NaClFairy
Summary: Their first expedition into the Howling Pit goes awry and Kyrie is incapacitated. During her short time in recovery Louis is burdened by his guilt and seeks to do right again.
Relationships: Louis & Protagonist (Code Vein)
Series: The Hyacinth Blooms [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2030710
Kudos: 7





	Aquaphobia

A garbled scream that shook his very core. Kyrie’s terrified eyes as she was forced under filthy water by the Lost. The sound of flesh tearing and bone breaking.

Louis took one deep breath, then another. Try as he did, there was no clearing that scene from his mind. The book held tight in his hand might as well have been written in gibberish because none of the words made any sense.

Two days have passed since their disastrous expedition into the Howling Pits beneath the city and Kyrie still hasn’t woken up. The instant they returned to Home Base, Louis was kicked out of the bedroom by Murasame and Coco who wasted no time in treating their new ally’s injuries.

One of her legs had been broken and her limbs and torso were covered in gashes, they told him later, but she was able to heal just fine after a bit of help, so there shouldn’t have been any reason to worry.

Still, Louis couldn’t help it. Overthinking was one of his bad habits and boy did it pick the worst moments to come at him in full force. 

His frown deepened and crimson eyes narrowed as the scene replayed again.

“Damn it….” As the leader of their group, he was responsible for this. Kyrie was acting strange the moment they stepped into the water and he knew it; her reflexes became sloppy, too jumpy, as if she was fighting some invisible foe. The anxiety radiating from her was so damn clear, but Louis wanted to reach the next bloodspring. It would be a good spot to rest and map their progress he told himself, and for his haste they ran straight into a den of Lost where everything just fell to pieces.

"Stare any harder and you might just burn a hole right through that."

Steady footsteps and blonde hair drew Louis’s attention away from dark thoughts.

"Was I that obvious?" He closed his book with a louder than necessary snap before uncharacteristically tossing it onto the desk.

The woman only shrugged.

“I helped treat her so I have a pretty idea of what happened to Kyrie. That girl’s tough; considering the damage she took I’m surprised she didn’t disperse on the spot, but she’s recovering just fine so I know it’s not her injuries worrying you. Spill the beans, Louis. What’s the real reason you’re moping so much?"

Louis considered dodging the question, but decided against it. Coco read people far too well for him to be able to hide anything from her. “...it’s because it’s my fault, Coco. I noticed she was acting strange, but I wanted us to keep going until the next bloodspring.” He took a deep breath. “So when we were attacked…”

There was no need to go over what happened again.

Kyrie’s panic only increased when she was pulled under the water, and in her desperate fight to survive she nearly frenzied, attacking both him and Yakumo in blind rage before losing consciousness from her previous injuries.

Coco took a minute to process his words. By now she was used to Louis’ bad habit of taking all the blame. As much as she found his altruism refreshing, it was also frustrating. He knew it and she knew it. The merchant was about to remind him of how pointless it was to keep looking back had Yakumo and Io not approached.

"There you are! I’m not surprised to see you haven’t moved." Smiling and waving, Yakumo sauntered over with Io trailing quietly behind him.

“Yakumo...did you need something?”

Rather than use his words, the taller revenant grabbed Louis and pulled him away from the desk. “We’re borrowing him for a minute, you don’t do you?”

“Not at all. Take him away,” Coco said with amusement in her voice as she watched Louis struggle against Yakumo’s strength, unwilling to leave his little nest of books.

“She has awoken and wishes to see you,” Io explained on their way to the bedroom.

Outside the old wood door, Louis planted his feet firmly on the ground, fists clenched tight. Seeing that look on Louis’ face prompted Yakumo to give him a good smack on the shoulder.

“Relax, would you? I know what you’re thinking, but you can’t expect everything to go smoothly. Let’s hear her out before imagining the worst.”

Louis looked at him for a second. “I must be losing my mind if you’re the one that sounds reasonable.”

“I have my moments of wisdom every now and then.”

As annoying as it could be at times, Yakumo’s cheerfulness did help him calm down.

“I will wait here...please see her.”

They opened the door, and Louis was at a loss for words.

Sitting on the bed with her knees pulled up to her chest, was Kyrie, dressed in a white shirt that was so large on her it was more a gown. Silver hair fell around her like a veil as she curled up tighter and looked away from her visitors.

Yakumo was the first to speak.

“Hey, glad to see you’re up! We were getting pretty worried about you.”

Amethyst eyes spared him the briefest of glances before falling on Louis’ tense figure at the foot of the bed.

Unbothered by her cold response, Yakumo pushed onward. “Looks like you healed up pretty good too, right Louis?”

“...ah...right…” Now that he mentioned it, Kyrie’s legs, left bare by the short fabric, looked normal, save for a few scars here and there. The regeneration granted to her from the BOR parasite was able to mend her. What a relief. In his periphery, Yakumo rolled his eyes, then gave their leader a stronger than necessary shove.

“We really are glad to see you’re recovering. To be honest, I was afraid you would disperse and we'd never find you again, or worse…”

Kyrie only stared back through a curtain of silver hair, her eyes downcast and glistening as tears started to fall.

"I'm sorry." Came the scratchy words that would've been missed if the room hadn't been so quiet. "This is my fault. I'm sorry..."

"Don't worry about it. It's not like any of us knew.” The sharp look Louis received from Yakumo was practically daring him to try and take the blame. “Listen, this sort of thing was pretty common back when I served in the army, so you have nothing to feel bad for. We all have our issues, amnesia or not.”

Tears still spilled over from her eyes, to Louis’ dismay, but with newfound determination the young revenant came to her side.

"It's alright," he spoke barely above a whisper.

Slowly, gently, as if she would break into pieces if he wasn't careful, Louis wiped the tears that fell. His trembling fingers felt her icy skin and brushed against the scar on her face. At this meager distance he also spotted a jagged mess of marks on her neck that made his chest hurt.

“It’s not….I screwed up…” By now she was shaking, anguished sobs racking her whole body. “...everything is my fault.”

No one liked having their own logic thrown back at them, so hearing what was basically his own thoughts voiced out loud made Louis realize just how foolish it was to keep thinking about this. No wonder Coco was about to tell him off.

"Yakumo’s right..." He tilted her head to meet that sorrowful gaze. “The past follows us wherever we go, even if we’ve forgotten that doesn’t mean it never existed. I would never blame you for this, especially when you had no control over it in the first place.”

Their faces edged closer and closer as a calm fell over the two. Perhaps he was imagining it, but Louis saw a bit of color return to her lovely face? Rather than ice, there was warmth where his hand touched her skin. From this close, he could feel her shaky breaths and smell the faint scent of shampoo.

“Louis…?”

Before any more words or actions could be exchanged they were interrupted by a loud “ahem”. Yakumo looked up at the ceiling as if it were the most interesting thing in the world with a dusting of pink on his face and a bashful grin.

"Hahahaha, see? It's okay! We're a team, so we'll find a way past this together. Hey, uh...Io, did I tell you about onigiri yet? I don’t think I did.”

The girl looked at him curiously, but did nothing to resist as he led her away from the room in haste and shut the door, asking, “What is onigiri?”

Their fleeting moment vanished, but the air was far less tense than before and there was a sense of comfort in not having an audience. With a bit of hesitation, Louis reached for Kyrie's hand. It was smaller than his own, rough in some places due to scar tissue, but warm and delicate nonetheless.

"...it’s so unfair."

Her voice was hoarse from lack of use and so much crying, but still carried the soothing aura of a gentle breeze. It drew Louis in, causing him to scoot closer and weave his fingers with hers.

"I don't know how I died, where I grew up, or my last name." The tears that stopped earlier flowed again and her hand squeezed tight around his. "But this...I don’t know why I’m so afraid and I hate that it only causes problems. I thought I could help, but all I do is mess up.”

Crimson eyes widened in shock, not only because this was the most he'd ever heard her say, but because it never occurred to him that she'd been harboring such doubts. If the circumstances were different, Louis would have been happy to hear her sweet airy voice, but not as she lamented her shortcomings.

For a while, he let her cry as they held hands.

“It must have been hard for you,” he said when her sobbing started to cease. “Being so afraid and not knowing why or how to get away. The sense of powerlessness eats away at you.”

Perhaps in agreement, Louis felt Kyrie lean on him and sigh deeply.

“I know this is a lot easier said than done, but...don’t blame yourself. I should’ve been more aware of what was going on instead of assuming you were alright. This is my mistake just as much as you think it’s yours.”

She mumbled something into the fabric of his shirt.

“Hmm?” Kyrie pulled away to grace him again with her sweet voice. “Then…can you forgive me?”

“Of course.”

“Can you trust me to try again?”

“That depends...could you trust me to protect you?” It was the least he could do after betraying her trust the first time. Kyrie remained silent, making Louis just the tiniest bit nervous until she spoke next.

“Sure. I’ll trust you.”

The young man shifted but didn’t release her hand that felt so warm in his own. Louis stayed with Kyrie in the room, occasionally brushing some of the silver strands away from her face as they enjoyed the quiet.

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be honest, I'm very good at games styles like Code Vein and Dark Souls. The Howling Pit map was a real struggle because I got lost in the fog over and over. And I also fell off the map due to not draining the water, oops. The only maps I had a harder time with was the Cathedral, haha.
> 
> Louis and Kyrie are both idiotic softies blaming themselves for everything. How silly. There'll be more fics coming in the series to show the growth of their relationship


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